integrate entropedia with ep wiki?

Yep, yep, theoretically it is. And as a matter of fact Witte gave us the permission to use everything on Entropedia years ago.

The challenge is not as much the pure data as it is the interface to edit and browse the data. It requires a lot of work (but still an tiny fraction of what a new platform would require) and making it as convenient as Entropedia would require a little bit of coding (but still a tiny fraction of what would be required to modernize Entropedia). And coding is something none of us current EP guys can do, we lack the skills :(

What probably will happen is that another lonely developer will grab the Entropedia data, will spend 10 times as much work as would be required to get the same done with EP wiki, and will create another completely custom system with the same issue that Entropedia has. Worst case it'll be a commercial entity grabbing the data and abuse it for personal gain... (unfortunately Entropedia never got a proper license making it really community content...)

However, as soon as I have a little bit more time I will look into wiki affairs again. There are so many improvements that are actually almost ready to be implemented. And EP wiki has passed 20.000.000 views last week :)

 

That is what mediawiki uses though right?

 

If you want to read old magazines: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/wiki/Entropia_Universe_Magazines :)

Now that everyone has the Entropedia data, what to do?

I had a look at a couple of things, I'm not 100% sure yet but I think we could integrate the data in a couple of ways:

1. add it to a db and add queries to wiki pages that display the db content, that would be relatively fast but read only
2. create a new interface to display and edit db data in wiki pages, that would require someone to code it (php mostly, js for fancy frontend stuff), result could be similar to Entropedia but would have the same issues as Entropedia (insane amount of work to create and maintain), but would still be better than a completely new website because everything else is there already (user management, discussion system, all that content beyond pure tabular db data, etc)
3. integrate the data as deeply as possible with the existing mediawiki system, that would be a lot more work than 1. but still a lot less work than 2., would not require custom code, would made the data available for all the features developed already (maps, embedding in forum posts, ...), editing would not be as convenient as Entropedia was once without custom code but custom code could be added over time and would be less work than in 2. and of course a tiny fraction of the work that would be required to create a new website similar to Entropedia

I'd go with 3. which would unfortunately mean a lot of work for RAZER & me and we are really busy already, unless more people volunteer to master mediawiki, it's easy, really, and it's used in many companies and other orgs nowadays, you can add it to your CV ;)

I think, mediawiki and how we use it for EP wiki is by far superior to Entropedia or anything alike, and always will be because 100s of people are working to improve it, the only point where Entropedia thingies can be better is manipulating tabular data and filtering such data, but as said many times already we could have the same on EP wiki with a tiny fraction of the custom code that makes Entropedia, just needs someone to do it.

 

My primary concerns are that when it comes to dealing with data and MindArk, you're always fighting a losing battle. MA won't share what they changed, and as such, you'll always be behind, as every new VU, randome stats were altered, and you never know where to look.

Where other games have pretty static loot tables, MA keeps fucking with shit (oh, sorry, "balancing the economy"), and as a result you're forever behined. Add the RCE component to that, meaning that someone who discovered something profitable would never ever ever release this to /world, and you can see why none of the wikis for EU ever really went anywhere. We rely on user data, and with the loot tables being as massive as they are, the good stuff that loots from certain mobs will probably never make its way into the wikis.

 

Admin no longer controls those servers. But the new people in charge are working on migrating things to a different server/host.

 

He should go back to being called ViagraFalls :)

 

There's a ViagraFalls users already ;)

 

Better now?

 

lol :)